@Michael Habel -- Re: This comment is totall Bullsh--!
1. New hardware (mobos etc.) is available for XP, but you won't find it in gamer establishments, try industrial control instead.
2. In many cases there is NO upgrade for XP. Vista, Win 7 and Win 8 are not equivalents to XP in many installations--either in the ergonomic (UI) sense, or program compatibility--too many things break. And thus many kiosks will be around forever (in IT-years anyway).
3. Quintessentially, Microsoft has NO replacement for XP (as was XP for W2K, NT, W98, W95 etc.). MS went off on a tangent and left millions high and dry. Many of them have chosen to ignore upgrading altogether--as there is nothing to upgrade to!! (Without expense and moving away from MS altogether.)
4. You, and even El Reg have missed the point this time which is what happens when a monopoly fucks up. It's time governments et al said enough is enough, we need to contract 'second-source' suppliers to build a compatible Win32/64 API OS, (this is what the military has done for hundreds of years, and it's done it on the basis that for critical systems you cannot just have one supplier--in case he goes belly-up at a critical time--as MS has done over Vista, W7 & W8).
5. Today, the world depends on the Win32/64 API, it's now a critical infrastructure. Thus, it makes sense for a worldwide conglomerate of governments etc. to force the issue and contract for an OS to built by whoever will take it on--a consortium perhaps, possibly even open systems. Ultimately, it'd be cheaper in the long run than just leaving the solution to MS to just dream up what it thinks the market needs (and to get it wrong so many times).
6. I cannot believe there are so many users and commentards who are still prepared to lick MS's arse after it has done so much damage to you and everybody else! Why and for what reason would you want to do that?
As I said, even here El Reg has also missed the fundamental issue of why we have a problem in the first place.
It's time to get really aggressive with Microsoft, if users have to play really dirty in the process then they're only meeting Microsoft on its own level.